So I'm sitting here, pretending to write a paper, when I feel that something's not right. I hear a sound - probably the cats. It's a rustling noise. Hmmmm. I decide to investigate. After all, I can't write a paper if something's wrong with my apartment.

The cats are very interested in my messy sewing room, the door of which is cracked open. So I take a peek in. Something white darts across the room toward my giant shelf of fabric. Was that just my world's cutest cat? No, too white to be her. Suddenly, a giant albino rat appears! I scream! No, it's not a rat, it's - a ferret???? WTF?

As he darts into the computer room, I shut the door behind him. He'd probably do more damage to my cats - or would they eat the ferret because the thing startled me and made me scream? (I'd like to think the cats give a crap about me.) I head downstairs to call maintenance - and someone knocks on my door. "Hi," says the guy, not sure how old the kid is, at least high school age. I asked him if he was missing a white ferret?

It turns out that he was. Apparently Snow scooted out of her cage while they were cleaning it and squeezed into our apartment from a hole under our kitchen sink. (I just went and looked under there - that's a damn small hole where the pipes come out of the wall. Apparently their other ferret is too fat to fit in there. And one of my cabinents wasn't shut, so that must have been the exit point.) I'm embarrassed that I screamed, and apparently loud enough to be heard from outside the apartment, because ferrets aren't scary, especially this little one. Still not sure what the cats would have done to the thing, because apparently Snow digs cats. So now I have a hint of Eau de Ferret on my clothes, because the little bugger crawled onto me when I reached out to pet her. The scent is not as unpleasant as I thought it would be. Cute little thing, but I think I'll stick with cats.